


Nightmares

by relinquish_one_bullet



Series: Dragon Age One Shots [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, NSFW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 14:55:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7110154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relinquish_one_bullet/pseuds/relinquish_one_bullet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Comfort from returning nightmares.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> First story posted here. Be gentle, please.

_It had been her idea._

In the heat of the battle, she had little time to think, only to react. It kept her sane, kept her grounded. She relished the battles, at her chance to atone for all she’d done wrong over the years. Over all those she had lost, unable to save. At the chance to turn her mind off. 

_Going to the conclave, meeting with the divine…she had come up with it all. Her friends, the only real family she had left, had dragged their feet, argued endlessly. And yet when the day came, they followed her without question or comment. All of them, the people she held dearest in the world, went into the conclave one by one._

Being inquisitor meant being busy, constantly busy. If she wanted to, she could look over orders and missions and supply lists. She could work and fight and only stop to sleep. _Sleep._ She dreaded it. 

The mind is a cruel thing and in the quiet moments, lying awake in a bed too big, too spacious, it concocted terrible memories that weren’t her own. She watched her friends, one by one, disintegrate into ash. She imagined their last moments, their last words, all of them reaching out to her and she; always a step too late. She imagined her new friends, unlikely allies she’d come to care about immensely, perish into the darkness.

When she was certain her mind would unravel, fraying and bursting, Cullen stepped in and became her rock: unmoving, steadfast. He quieted the nightmares that so frequently danced through her mind, kept her calm, brought her back to life. He’d had so much practice calming himself down, perhaps it was second nature to bring her back to ground. 

This night, she twitched hard in her sleep, her mouth a twist of a grimace. Her hands bunched into the silk sheets beneath her, a snarl escaping past her lips. He awoke slowly, yawning, and then turned over on his side to get a better look at her. 

“Mischa.” He whispered it, pressing his face into her long, curling hair with a sigh, “Mischa, it’s all right.” 

She choked, shocking herself awake with a strangled sob. He had an arm around her already, cocooning her away from the world, keeping her safe. She turned into him immediately, pressing her face against his chest and trembling. 

“What was it this time?” He breathed, keeping his chin against the top of her hair and tangling his arms around her 

“I’m always a step too late.” She replied cryptically, “Always a step too late.” 

He didn’t bother pushing for more answers than that, just tightened his arms around her. Her fingers twisted into the back of the loose shirt her wore and she shook more violently, perhaps trying to let the nightmares shake from her skin. 

“Breathe.” He whispered, pulling away enough to brush her damp bangs away from her face, “It’s all right.” 

His voice was low and slow with sleep, comforting her immensely. She took a shaky breath in return and then twisted onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. Light poured into the room from the moonlight outside, casting strange shadows across the bed and across her skin. The light slip she wore clung in places and she smoothed her palms across it to try to make it straight again. 

It was in these moments that sleep either overtook her or eluded her completely. Tonight, elusion seemed to take hold and she groaned, pressing her palms roughly against her eyelids. 

“Not tired?” Cullen brushed his nose against her neck gently, dragging back up to her hair again 

“I should work on some requisition orders, make sure everything is in shape for tomorrow.” She responded with a yawn, cursing her body 

“Or…” He pulled her back as she started to sink off the bed, “You could let me try to get you back to sleep.” 

She smirked despite herself, flinching when his fingertips tiptoed down her ribs. He tucked an arm behind her neck, pulling himself up to cocoon her from above. She paused, tracing light fingers against his cheeks.

“You’re exhausted.” She whispered but he merely grinned

“Not _that_ exhausted.” 

His kisses were slow, languid. He started against her neck, wet and warm and lazy. It made her toes curl, his stubble brushing just enough to make her squirm. Her mind travelled back to the nightmare when she closed her eyes, her heart beating slightly out of tune. 

He caught it with his lips pressed against her jugular and dragged his hand up her slip to rest at her bare ribs. It was enough to jolt her from her thoughts, to bring her back to him. 

“Cullen.” She whined his name, rolling her eyes when he smirked against her collarbone

He managed to pull himself away, staring down at her for half a moment, and then pressing his lips tightly to her own. He propped himself up on his forearms, each resting beside her head, before assaulting her lips once more with hot, soft kisses. She tried to protest but it turned to a mere mumble against his lips and she sighed into his mouth, none too put off when he pressed himself against her. 

He dragged himself from her lips, pausing at her chin and then down her jaw and neck. Her back arched just as he knew it would and he slipped an arm beneath her, keeping her pressed tight to him for a moment. Down to her collarbone, across to her shoulder, he pressed the tiny strap of her slip to one side and marched on down to her breasts. 

“ _Cullen_.” She tried again but it came out too much like a plead, begging, and it only spurred him farther

He did always like it when she begged. 

His fingertips toys with the bottom of the slip as he captured her right nipple between his teeth. She whimpered in return, toes curling hard. And with that he yanked the slip over her head, exposing her light skin to the moonlight and the frigid air. 

She barely had time to complain, goosebumps traveling up her arms, when he was on her again, kissing every inch of her breasts. She knew where this was going, where it always led when she couldn’t sleep. She bit her lip in anticipation as he moved on down, sucking on her ribs and licking a line from her panties to her bellybutton. 

She went to make a noise, though she wasn’t entirely sure what she’d say, but he silenced her with a soft bite to her inner thigh. Her legs flexed and then trembled as he drew closer, so slow, so teasing. His breath danced up her hip and her own hitched uncomfortably, waiting. He liked to prolong the torture, to see her unravel second by second. 

Her groan pushed him forward and he bit the top of her panties and dragged them away with his teeth. He pulled his shirt off in the next moment and she took her time, meandering down the view from shoulder to chest to the small patch of hair above his waistband. The telltale blush that always crossed his face whenever he found her looking at him made its way onto his face but his hid it with a kiss to her knee. 

His hands, rough and calloused from years of carrying a sword, ran down from knee to thigh, biting into her hips and dragging him closer. She pushed herself up onto her forearms, unable to look away. His dark eyes glanced up at her, a telltale smirk on his lips, before he leaned closer and placed a sloppy, wet kiss to her thigh. 

He continued to assault her thigh, dragging out the tease, making her tense. Already her hands had twisted into the sheets below. He shifted so that her legs rested against his shoulder blades and her toes crunched in anticipation, his breath stroking her sex. 

“You’ll kill me if –ahh!” 

His tongue darted out, tentative. Her entire body jerked in response, so on edge, so ready, and yet not ready at all. He kissed her again, licking in one, solid motion, wet and hot and soft. 

She moaned, twisting her hands into the pillows above her head and letting herself fall backwards against the mattress again. He was slow, building her up, second upon torturous second. Her legs trembled, tightening against his shoulders as his fingertips ran gentle circles around her ribs and hips. The ticklish sensations that normally distracted her kept her nerves taut and pulsing. 

“C-Cullen…I…fuck.” 

He was swirling his tongue against her clit when she gave up her assault of the pillows above and intertwined a hand with his hair, nails pressing against the scalp. He moaned into her and it took everything in her not to cry out, not to buck into him. 

She was nearly to the edge, a deep feeling in her belly burning over. He knew it too, despite the slow, teasing strokes of his tongue. He would push her over slowly, wear her out. 

“I…I’m going…I’m going to…”

But he pulled away, grinning as her eyes snapped to his, already slitting into glares. She wanted to scream, her abs tensing hard. The build up was still there, writhing, waiting, fighting to escape. There was no backing down from the edge, her body commanded that she cum and yet…

“Don’t.” She whispered it, “Please…Maker have mercy, Cullen.”

“Hmm…mercy?” He questioned her, mouth pressed against her sex once again, his words vibrating her core, “From a maker you don’t believe in?”

“ _Please_.” Her voice was hoarse

“You want to cum?” He glanced up at her without lifting his head away and she squirmed beneath him in protest

“Yes.” She was exasperated

“Hmm.” 

His tongue struck up a new tempo and her back arched off the bed. He pressed farther into her and then, without warning, allowed a finger to slid in as well. This time she couldn’t stop from crying out, her legs clasping around his face. Faster and faster as she clutched him closer, pulling at his golden locks. 

“D-Don’t stop…please…ohmygod.” She was close again, so close, her eyes crunched close and…

“Fuck!” She didn’t try to hide her blatant disappointment and anger as he pulled away, “You…ar tu na’din.” _(I will kill you.)_

“Now that doesn’t give me much incentive to finish.” He joked, kissing her inside of her thigh

She sighed through her teeth, pushing her head back against the pillows. He kept his finger inside her, excruciating motions keeping her just away from the edge. Her body ached, she wanted release, her muscles pulled in protest. 

All the while he watched her carefully, noting each change. When he added a second finger, still moving too slow to push her over, her back arched again and she whined. He could see her giving in, her body pushed to the limits. As much as he loved to see her unknotted like this, he liked to see her content and exhausted even more. 

He picked up the pace with his fingers, hooking them ever so slightly to hit the spot that made her scream. She didn’t disappoint when he added his tongue and lips, sucking on her. Her knees knocked together behind his head, her entire body vibrating. He would let her cum, he decided, hooking his fingers more dramatically. 

She arched again, half screaming half moaning his name. It made something in the core of his gut tremble at the sound but he didn’t stop, letting her ride it out as long as she needed to. When she was spent, her body flopping back against the bed. He pulled his fingers away, smirking at the soft moan that still escaped her lips, and then pressed a few soft kisses up her abdomen. 

He stopped at her neck, pressing his face against her hair again and sighing. She was deadweight, still unable to pull herself back together. 

Finally, she managed to twist herself into his arms, pressing her face to his shoulder with a sigh. She traced over his bare chest for a moment, fingertips dipping into all the crevices and dancing over the many scars before she gave in, pressing her lips gently to his neck. 

He wrapped a loose arm around her, dragging the covers over them both and keeping her firmly at his side. Her leg draped over his and she found a comfortable position before yawning, her eyes drifting closed. 

“Cullen?” She breathed his name, almost asleep

“Hmm…yes, love?” He answered in the dark, eyes closed, sleep threatening to drag him away

“Emma shem’nan, ma’arlath.” _(My revenge is swift, my love)_

And with that she kissed his neck, drifting off to sleep and leaving him wondering just what kind of pay back was in store when the sun rose tomorrow.


End file.
